Quit Complaining – It’s Only
Winter!

My wife made me change the
channel away from the Jets game last night to the Rick Mercer Report on
CBC, so that I would watch his weekly “Rant.”

They are always
insightful and cheeky, vintage Rick Mercer, and usually pillory a
government policy or a particular politician. This time, his
target was all of us Canadians who are aghast at the “old-time” winter
we have been suffering through. His final volley:
“People! It’s not a Polar Vortex! It’s just
winter!!”

Some might argue that it is more than
“just winter,” as many places are receiving frost or snowfalls where
they have never existed before. In recent weeks, Central and
South America have suffered major export crop losses due to
frost. Atlanta school children slept at their desks overnight
last week after a heavy snowfall meant that it was unsafe for buses to
take them home. Climate change anyone?

My long career in international
development has “acclimatized” me to the struggles of migrants coming
from tropical climates to our province as students or to stay, work and
live here permanently. As well, I’ve seen what happens to
Manitobans who go and live long-term in those warmer parts of our
world.

I was Skyping with my youngest daughter who is working in Nairobi,
Kenya for Engineers without Borders, and has been there about eight
months. She was wearing a sweater and scarf and complaining
about their cold +20 degree day while my wife and I were sitting in
Manitoba at -20 degrees and thinking that we were experiencing a warm
spell!

We’ve hosted visitors to Manitoba from Africa and Latin America over
the years. A couple of years ago, on a lovely June evening,
people from Tanzania who have connected with the Marquis Project for
the past two decades visited our home and we brought together many of
their Canadian friends and supporters for a barbecue.

The
Africans, by mid-evening, were borrowing our heavy jackets and even
parkas when a breeze came up!

I remember one winter where Brandon-Westman churches hosted a speaker
from Guatemala, Central America. After he and I had driven
around the rural areas for a week, getting stuck in snowdrifts and
enduring freezing winds, he said that only the Guatemalan army made him
more fearful than a Manitoba winter.

Currently, working and teaching in Winnipeg and the Interlake, I meet
many students and recent immigrants from all over Africa and Asia in
particular. Of course, the first question many of these folks
are asked is: “Is this your first winter?” You can
tell that they now expect the question and have devised polite answers
in case by not liking winter, they will offend their new Manitoba
friends and colleagues.

Our climate is toughest on those who actually arrive to study at the
start of the January university or college term. They have no
time to get used to the weather by going through autumn into
freeze-up. Many of them describe our cold as “painful” and
they wear many layers to keep warm. I met with a man from the
Democratic Republic of Congo the other day, who wore his regular
clothes, then a sweater, then a leather jacket and finally a
parka. When our meeting ended, he couldn’t find his gloves
and there was real panic in his eyes!

Some are more adventurous than
others. They look forward to experiencing their first
snowfall and are quick to try skating, snowshoeing, skiing,
snowmobiling and other winter pastimes. Others lock
themselves up in their dorms or apartments fearful of going out and
this leads to many challenges, such as homesickness and
depression.

A university student from Pakistan who visited my
office talked excitedly about the indoor route that she had discovered
that takes her from the University of Winnipeg 95% of the way to my
office near the downtown MTS Centre!

Back in the mid-90s, the Marquis Project
hosted a group of students and their leaders from the East African
country of Uganda. My kids, very young at the time, still
remember this as a magical time, having African “friends” visit in the
dead of winter (February, as I recall) and taking part in snowball
fights and the other activities that make adults impressed by how kids
can turn cold and snow into fun!

So, as Rick Mercer says, it is ONLY
winter, although this year’s is a little more challenging than
most. Those of us old enough to remember the blizzards of
1966 or 1986 or 1997 can take heart that all cold things must come to
an end!Zack Gross works
for the Manitoba Council for International
Co-operation (MCIC), a
coalition of more than 40 international development organizations.